The first few months of the Pandemic came out of nowhere. Many different emotions were experienced. But the most common among everyone was fear. The fear of contracting the disease, of death, if life will ever go back to normal, and many more. I have chosen images that represent the results or causes of fears during the Pandemic for me. I chose these three because they connect to each other in a way. Through the emotion of fear that is. 

The first thing that I thought of after hearing about covid-19 was how deadly will it be and how many lives will it take. I used to look at the death toll daily to see how bad it is getting and which area is affected the most. The death rate went up so much in a few weeks. Just seeing this makes me scared to go outside and also work. You can get many information from the chart. For example like where the virus spread from and how deeply it is spread. This was probably one of the reasons people did’t go out as much anymore compared to the starting of the pandemic. This image was an example of ethos as it was trustworthy information that is constantly updated. 

My second image was the result of fear. This was not common but it was one of the first sign of fear for safety during the Pandemic for me. I used to work in a grocery store so I saw many people wear these masks in first person. These are respirators. There were even some people who wore these and also a plastic shield infront of their face. Some people were worried about their health more compare to others. It was mostly the elders or older people that I saw wearing these. This is an example of pathos because it showed that people were worried about their health and safety that they were extra cautious. 

Things have become a lot better ever since the start of the pandemic during the first months of 2020. Today, there are vaccines and treatments for symptoms. The streets are busy again and schools are opened again. Some bad came with the pandemic like Asian hate. Many Asians were attacked or harassed because they were blamed for the cause of the disease. I’m Asian so it kind of heated me seeing footages of elderly and vulnerable Asians being attacked and harassed. Some were even killed. I also experienced racism at my current job. I work at Panda Express now. A lady got mad because she had to wait long and said, “yall brought the disease and now you’re making our food. I don’t know what she expected at a restaurant that’s Chinese. Some good things that came from this time was people coming together and supporting each other. People also learned new habits. 

There are many lessons that I can learn from this period. The most important I learned was that not everything is gonna go as I planned. I was disappointed a lot during this time. I also experienced some depression that taught me how to deal with it now. I learned about the nature and behavior of some people. It really surprised me experiencing new emotions and situations. I will carry with me the lessons I learn forward. I have become a bit more mature. I try to learn new stuff and improve myself now. I will do things differently now by not thinking about things much and take every opportunity I have. I will be more grateful for things that I have and for my friends that are real. I will apply the lessons I learn to do things differently now. 

 

I don’t really have a clear memory of March 2020. Some of the things that I remember was that school was changed to online classes instead of in person. I lost the ability to go to some places like malls and stores for shopping for accessories. I wasn’t feeling down or anything. I was more of an introvert so it was kind of good for me. The only thing I did not like about was that I couldn’t go play soccer. I couldn’t see my new friends that I just made starting of that year anymore too. I remember texting those friends joking about covid 19. Many people were panic shopping for water, toilet papers, and other essentials. I was working at a grocery store so I saw that in person. People were stacking full two or even three carts full of supplies.

There were some things that kept me comfort through the pandemic as it leaned toward summer. I had friends that I texted everyday. Mostly every second. I did not worry about much. There were tik tok trends created because of all the bored people in lockdown. I sometime go with my friends to the soccer field to play soccer. I was also gaming alot and watching anime. A lot of shows was canceled though because of lockdown. Summer soon came but it was terrible. I had covid for about 2 whole months. I had symptoms for a whole month. I had diarrhea for a whole month. Fever and cold both at the same time during the first 1 or 2 week. I could still taste and eat food though. That was the plus.

The last social experience that I had before I started worrying about the pandemic was going out shopping and getting ready for prom with my friends. My friends and I were on the way home from school in one of my friends car who was the only one driving at that time. It was afternoon during mid February. We went to different stores and malls looking for suits for prom. There were 4 of us total. We were listening to Roddy Rich’s high fashion when it had just came out. We were watching tiktok while it was starting to get very popular that time. Everything was chill and relaxing.

The virus was developing around the world during December 2019 and January 2020, but most of the people in the United States were not that worried about it. I heard about covid on the news but never worried about it. I thought it would be like Ebola and that it will just go away. I actually thought of it as a joke. Little did I know it would ruin my junior and senior year. We were halfway through the week when they just closed the school. I was happy because that means I got to play Fortnite all day. I also just started working that time. Everything was starting to get stressful for me. It was alot to take in with what was happening around me at work, school, and my friends. Everything felt gloomy depressing.

 

Hello, My name is Baw Reh. I’m 19 years old. I was born in Thailand and moved here about 12 years ago. I’ve been in Georgia most of my life. I don’t really like traveling much. I always rather be home. Some of my hobbies are playing soccer, video games, and watching anime. The game that I play the most right now is Warzone. If anyone wants to play you can add me on PlayStation. My username is Rehbaw. My favorite music is rap and RnB. I listen to Lil Tjay the most, but I also listen to others too. Favorite movie is now Spiderman No Way Home.

I don’t have a career that I want to purse yet currently. I do want to do either business or financing though. I’ll just ride along till I find what I want to really do. My future college plan is to go to a 4 year college to complete my Bachelor’s after completing my Associate’s here. At first, I only wanted to do 2 years. But I thought that I should just give it my best and see how far I go to test myself. I’m thinking of going either out of state or going downtown if I continue.